Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

CHAPTER ONE: (97 words)“Circumstances” are where you are right now.“Choices” are what you will make.“Consequences” are what will happen as a result.Sometimes your circumstances are the consequence of your choices. But not always.The circumstances of your birth and your childhood, such as your nationality and your ethnicity, and whether or not your family had money, are not the consequence of any choice you made.It is foolish to feel pride about circumstances that are not the result of your choices.It is foolish to feel shame about circumstances that are not the result of your choices.CHAPTER TWO: (45 words)Will you allow yourself to choose contentment?Or do you believe contentment to be shameful?What is it abouttheir native discontent,their refusal to be satisfied,their undying hunger for more,that makes us admire an ambitious person?Contentment is a choice, not a consequence.CHAPTER THREE: (60 words)Guilt is about what you have done. Shame is about who you are.You choose shame when you continue to do what you know is wrong.Feelings of guilt are beneficial when they cause you to make better choices.When you make better choices, you are no longer who you were.So let the shame go. It isn’t yours anymore.CHAPTER FOUR: (26 words)You can evaluate a man’s ethics by the condition in which he leaves a public restroom.I don’t know how to evaluate the ethics of women.CHAPTER FIVE: (68 words)The angels in the sky sang to the shepherds, “All is forgiven.”A star in the sky whispered to the wise men, “Follow me.”The message was clear to the shepherds.But the wise men had to figure it out on their own.“What’s it all about?” ask the wise men, the entrepreneurs, inventors, artists and kings.But the shepherds – underpaid nurses, caretakers, guardians and teachers – already know.CHAPTER SIX: (69 words)Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) worked as a telegraph messenger 169 years ago. Books were expensive in those days and there were no public libraries. But a Pittsburg man, Col. James Anderson, opened up his collection of 400 books every Saturday to local boys who wanted to expand their minds. Carnegie later donated $56.5 million to open more than 2500 libraries in a dozen countries, saying, “The man who dies thus rich, dies disgraced.”CHAPTER SEVEN: (40 words)Julius Rosenwald (1862-1932) was a Jewish garment manufacturer who quietly donated more than $50 million in matching funds to construct 5,357 schools in African-American communities across the impoverished Southern States. “He who gives while he lives, knows where it goes.”CHAPTER EIGHT: (42 words)Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) left us his best advice, “I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.”CHAPTER NINE: (83 words)Billionaires Bill and Melinda Gates ($88.5 billion) have been joined by Warren Buffett ($74.2 billion) and 158 other billionaires in an effort to remedy society’s most pressing problems by committing to give more than half their wealth to philanthropy or charitable causes, either during their lifetime or in their will. The current pledge total is now more than $365 billion.Imagine spending a billion dollars a day – a thousand million dollars – every day for a year, in an effort to change the world.CHAPTER TEN: (19 words)The wisest of the wise menalways becomeshepherdsin the end.The shepherds were the first to know.Roy H. Williams

Life-changing decisions often seem small on the day we make them.1978 – Everyone had gone home. I was in the warehouse alone, waiting for Pennie to come and pick me up. I had been installing guttering on houses all day. The job paid $5 an hour.We had just one car.Bored, I looked in the phone book to see if Tulsa had one of those pre-recorded “dial-a-prayer” lines I might call to pass the time.There were three of them.I called.I was appalled.Later that night I saw my friend, “Cheerful Charlie” Myers, and told him how devastatingly bad those messages had been. My secret hope was that Charlie would volunteer to create a more interesting daily message. I said, “Someone ought to…”Before I could finish that sentence, Charlie reached into his pocket, grabbed my wrist, turned my palm upward, slapped a 10-dollar bill into it, looked into my eyes and said, “And you’re just the man to do it. Here’s ten bucks. Let me know what number to call after the equipment is installed.”I had allowed my alligator mouth to overload my mockingbird butt, and Charlie called me on it.That ten dollars would be the only money I would ever collect from “Daybreak,” my daily recorded message, because I never told anyone how they could get in touch with me. The daily call count got so high that Pennie and I had to install rollover lines and lease additional equipment because too many callers were getting a busy signal.I was spending about 3 hours of writing time each day and 25% of our household income each month to fund an enterprise from which there was never a plan for return-on-investment.But it was the ultimate Masters Class on Ad Writing.If you write a new message – 7 days a week – that is interesting enough to cause complete strangers to voluntarily dial a phone number each day to hear that message, your friends are going to ask you to start writing ads for them.But ad writing takes a lot of time. So much, in fact, that “Daybreak” became a weekly 1-page fax called The Monday Morning Memo. That fax later became an email and a podcast. You’re reading it, or listening to it, right now.1998 ­– exactly 20 years after Cheerful Charlie Myers slapped that 10-dollar bill into my hand, Bard Press collected 100 of those memos and The Wizard of Ads became Business Book of the Year. Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads (1999) and Magical Worlds of the Wizard of Ads (2001) became New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers.Then Pennie found a 21-acre plateau that overlooked Austin from 900 feet above the city and suggested that we build a campus for artists and entrepreneurs.2018 – exactly 20 years after The Wizard of Ads was published – I’m preparing to turn Wizard Academy over to a new generation of leadership and begin the next chapter of my life with the Princess.But that’s enough about me.2018 – Let’s talk about you.  Have you mapped the journey that brought you to where you are? I just showed you how to do it.Find a moment that, in hindsight, looks to be auspicious.Begin your map at that point in time.Look back at other positive, pivotal moments.Figure out where they should be on your map.Connect the dots.The fun of this exercise is that it:reminds you of who you are.focuses your attention on good, not bad, memories.gives you a glimpse at what might – just maybe – be around the corner.And now a Traveler’s Blessing for you that I condensed from the Tefilat Haderekh, the traditional Hebrew traveler’s prayer:May God guide your footsteps toward peace, and cause you to reach a happy destination. May he rescue you from the hand of every foe, and every ambush along the way. And may you have a wonderful time.Roy H. Williams

People don’t Paint-by-Number as often as they did 50 years ago.My personal theory is that we came to our senses and realized Paint-by-Number paintings are perfectly awful.But we still see and hear a lot of Advertise-by-Number and Sales-by-Number.I blame the colleges.Paint-by-number paintings employ a template. I’m not against templates. I’ve created dozens of them. The purpose of a template is to give beginners a way to begin. The hope, of course, is that the beginner will learn to improvise, develop new techniques, and leave the template behind. But invariably some fool of an instructor will carve the template in stone and treat it as an idol to be worshiped, a perfection to which we should all aspire, a standard to which we should all be held accountable.And because templates are step-by-step and simple and tidy and easily monitored, they are quickly embraced by people looking for shortcuts and hacks.Pause with me for a moment to thank merciful God above that the template worshippers never discovered poetry. If they had, all poems would begin, “Roses are red, violets are blue…”Sadly, the template worshippers discovered marketing in the 1950s.That’s when most of our tragic Advertise-by-Number and Sales-by-Number templates were developed, popularized, and adopted as standard operating procedure. These obsolete templates from the 1950s are why we hate most advertising and are suspicious of most salespeople.Advertise-by-Number Template #1: Your Unique Selling PropositionBusiness owners are usually introduced to this template by well-meaning ad writers who ask, “What is it that you do differently than your competitors? We need to focus on what YOU do that they DON’T do. What makes you different and special and better than everyone else?”TRUTH: Bad advertising is about you, your company, your product, your service. “Me, me, me, me, me.” Bad advertising walks into the room and shouts, “Here I am!”Good advertising is about the customer and how you hope to improve their world. Good advertising walks into the room and smiles, “There you are!”Advertise-by-Number Template #2: Reach the right people.Targeting the “right” customer is always more expensive. A lot more expensive. This is why media salespeople want you to focus your attention on reaching “the perfect target customer.” Age. Gender. Income. Zip code. Purchase history. When you agree with the seller that some people are “right” but most are “wrong” for your business, you just agreed to pay a premium price for whatever media they’re selling.TRUTH: Decisions are never made in a vacuum. To become a household word, you must also reach the influencers, the friends and neighbors, sons and daughters, husbands and wives, co-workers and employers of your customer. But happily, this “unfiltered” mass audience is extremely affordable.TRUTH: Telling an interesting story – saying the right thing – is much more important than “reaching the right customer.” When you learn to speak to the heart, you’re going to be surprised at how many people suddenly become the “right” people. Online engagement, page views, time spent on site, and word-of-mouth will skyrocket.Advertise-by-Number Template #3: Tell them what they want to hear.“Tell them what they want to hear,” is the very definition of hype! Hyperbolic statements of high relevance, but low credibility, cause customers to roll their eyes and whisper, “That would be impressive if I believed you.”TRUTH: You gain credibility when you are open, honest, and vulnerable. The strongest ads create a bond with the customer. Win the heart, and the mind will follow. Your customer can always find logic to support what their heart has already decided.Sales-by-Number Template #1: Everyone is an extravert.“Engage the customer immediately. Make eye contact. Smile big. Shake their hand. Pat their back. Never quit talking. In other words, be friendly.” Extraverts live to talk. Face-to-face. Nose-to-nose. It gives them energy and makes them feel good. Does it surprise you that extraverts are naturally attracted to selling? Here’s what’s funny: They’re treating you exactly how they prefer to be treated.TRUTH: What feels like “friendliness” to the extravert feels like “assault” to the introvert. And 49.5 percent of the population is introverted.1 Are you beginning to understand why Amazon.com has become the #1 search engine for product research, even when we’re planning to buy the product at a local brick-and-mortar store?TRUTH: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” assumes that everyone is like you. If you want happier customers, you must learn to, “do unto others as they prefer to be done unto.”Sales-by-Number Template #2: Dominate the conversation.“Don’t let the customer lead you. You must lead them. Don’t listen to their story. Make them listen to yours.”TRUTH: People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care. And the way to let people know that you truly care is to listen to them carefully and then help them find what they want, not what you want them to have.Have I put the matter too strongly? Have I?Do I sound like I have a chip on my shoulder? Do I sound like I’m a little bit angry?If so, it is only because I’ve been reading Grace Paley (1922 – 2007,) who said,“Let us go forth with fear and courage and rage to save the world.”I’m just trying to save the world from bad advertising and tacky salesmanship.Do you want to help?Meet me at Wizard Academy.Roy H. Williams

We experience wonder when we realize our true size.On clear nights, we ride a speck of dust as it circles an 11,000-degree fireball shooting through a limitless vacuum at 52 times the speed of a rifle bullet.And that fireballis one of billionsof fireballsin our galaxy.And our galaxyis one of billionsof galaxies.Looking at the stars, we know our true size.On rainy days, we thumb through the fading scrapbooks of our minds, celebrating small and silly victories, reflecting on old mistakes, examining events that will cease to be when we are gone.And again, we know our true size.Jorge Luis Borges speaks of this infinite, inner universe in The Witness.“The man, while still a boy, had seen the face of Woden, had seen holy dread and exultation, had seen the rude wooden idol weighed down with Roman coins and heavy vestments, seen the sacrifice of horses, dogs, and prisoners. Before dawn he would be dead and with him would die, never to return, the last firsthand images of the pagan rites. The world would be poorer when this Saxon was no more.”“We may well be astonished by space-filling acts which come to an end when someone dies, and yet something, or an infinite number of things, die in each death. There was a day in time when the last eyes to see Christ were closed forever. The battle of Junín and the love of Helen died with the death of some one man.”“What will die with me when I die? What pathetic or frail form will the world lose? Perhaps the voice of Macedonio Fernandez, the image of a horse in the vacant space at Serrano and Charcas, a bar of sulfur in the drawer of a mahogany desk?”Roy Batty, the leader of the replicants in Blade Runner (1982) spoke of his own inner universe just before he died.“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.”Likewise, in Richard Hoggart’s First and Last Things, an old woman observes,“Since Penelope Noakes of Duppas Hill is gone, there is no one who will ever call me Nellie again.”I mention these things only because you populate your private universe with people and events of your own choosing.If you don’t like the world you live in, you can change it.The people who occupy the space around youcan choose to be there against your will.But you, alone,control who it isthat occupiesthe real estateof your mind.Roy H. Williams

Balance is not compromise. It is a universe born when gravity meets antigravity, matter meets antimatter, Yin meets Yang, and Lennon meets McCartney.Balance is not the average between two extremes. It is the precarious midpoint between rising and falling. It is the last breath of an old man answered by the first cry of a baby. It is the electric current that leaps between positive and negative. It is perky Paul McCartney meeting jerky John Lennon.There we are with Lennon and McCartney again. Do you know that story?Neither of them was as good alone as they were together.Lennon added depth to McCartney’s superficial shallowness. McCartney injected hope into John’s cries of despair. If you’ve seen the theatre masks of tragedy and comedy you’ve seen the souls of Lennon and McCartney.In a 1980 interview, John said,“Paul provided a lightness, an optimism, while I would always go for the sadness, the discords, the bluesy notes.”Occasionally, they would weave together two half-finished songs to create a hit that neither of them could have crafted alone. In one instance, Paul contributed the energetic passage, “Woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head …” to insert in the middle of John’s whining complaint, “I read the news today, oh boy …”But then came the moment when perky Paul McCartney had to write a song of encouragement to a broken-hearted 5-year-old boy.That boy was Julian Lennon, the son that John had abandoned to be with his lover, Yoko Ono.Paul wrote the song as he was driving out to visit Julian and his mother, Cynthia, a month after John had moved out of the family home.“I started with the idea ‘Hey Jules’ – which was Julian – ‘don’t make it bad, take a sad song and make it better.’ But then I changed the name to ‘Jude’ because I thought that sounded a bit better.”When Paul played the song for John, he assured him that he would change the line, “the movement you need is on your shoulder,” because Paul felt it conjured the image of a parrot. Lennon replied, “You won’t, you know. That’s the best line in the song.” So the line stayed in.“Hey Jude” spent nine weeks as the number one song in the United States, the longest of any Beatles song, ever, and the single sold eight million copies. In 2013, Billboard named it the 10th biggest song of all time.When you make room for someone who is essentially your opposite, you make yourself exponentially stronger, more appealing, and more effective.Your opposite can bring you gifts that no one else can give you.Your opposite can see what is hiding in your blind spot and bring it blazing to your to attention.Your opposite is uniquely qualified to be your partner to the stars, or your nemesis in the darkness.Your relationship with them will determine which of these they will be.Did you know you can choose to like someone, regardless of whether they have ‘earned’ it?Which of the people in your life is your opposite?Do they know you treasure them as an asset?Or do you simply annoy each other?Roy H. Williams

“The data is conclusive,” he told me, “our close rate is much higher when customers call us on the telephone instead of going to our website. Therefore, you need to write ads that drive customers to the telephone.”“I agree that the data is conclusive,” I told him, “and it says you need to fix your half-assed website.”The research community has embraced a new buzzword. They take great delight in demanding that everything be “evidence based.” It’s a little like listening to a parrot: “Evidence based.” “Evidence based.” “Evidence based.” “Evidence based.”By themselves, these two words seem harmless. After all, every new idea is based on evidence. But the smug and devilish side of this trend toward “evidence-based” methodology is that the phrase has come to mean “scientific, conclusive, and therefore above debate.”In other words, if you want everyone to shut up and swallow your recommendation, all you have to do is raise your voice and announce that it is “evidence based.”I think they learned this trick from online marketers. (Lest the broad brush of that statement paint innocent people with a fault that is not their own, allow me to say that I know several brilliant, online marketers who gather data responsibly and examine it from every perspective. They agree that numbers can whisper opposite statements when viewed from different angles.*)I’ve never seen anyone make a decision that wasn’t based on evidence.So the question isn’t whether you’re basing your decisions on evidence. Of course you are. The question is whether you’re interpreting that evidence correctly.Here’s how I explain this cognitive bias that has become so alarmingly evident: “The intellect can always find logic to justify what the heart has already decided. Consequently, data is often used in the same way that a drunk man uses a lamppost; for support, not for illumination.”Let’s examine the facts.FACT: The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.FACT: The French eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.FACT: The Japanese drink no red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.FACT: The Italians drink lots of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.FACT: The Germans eat sausages with beer and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.EVIDENCE BASED CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. It’s speaking English that kills you.The misinterpretation of data is as old as humanity. “Post hoc, ergo propter hoc,” is the ancient Latin name for this most common fallacy of logic. It means, “the second thing followed the first thing, therefore the first thing caused the second thing.”But correlation rarely indicates causation.Another limitation of data is that it cannot tell you the right thing to do. It can only tell you the result of what you have already done.Am I against data? Of course not. Data is information, and information is powerful.But like all powerful things, it can hurt you if mishandle it.Five safeguards you should use when evaluating data.Ask:1. What were the methods of data collection?2. Could those methods have influenced the findings?3. Is there any other way to look at these numbers? (i.e. – Are they saying “drive customers to the telephones,” or are they saying “fix the website”?)4. Is there a chance the persons who prepared this information have a bias or an agenda?5. If the data reveals a surprise, is that surprise supported by indicators outside the data?You’ve heard it said that “numbers don’t lie.” I’ve heard that, too.But I also remember my grandfather Roy looking at me after a data-quoting salesman had walked away. He said, “Little Roy, never forget: figures lie when liars figure.”Granddad, it’s been fifty years.I never forgot.Roy H. Williams

The name Wizard Academy causes a lot of people to scorn our school without knowing anything about us.And that, my friend, is the primary reason we chose the name. AWe don’t want uptight people coming here.When the right people – people like you – are confronted with the name Wizard Academy, they are filled with curiosity. And so they investigate. They visit the website, watch a few videos, read some MondayMorningMemos.Curiosity and a hunger for wonder are what Wizard Academy alumni seem to have in common.Wonder. Do you remember it?“Later that evening when we sat at the train station waiting to board our train I opened the notebook and wrote a question at the top of the first page: Where do you find wonder? That was the central question for a magician, certainly, but I also thought it was an important question for anyone. Wonder is something that everyone cares about but no one discusses, and I probably wasn’t the only one in my generation to lie awake in bed one night, unable to sleep, trying to figure out when everything had gone so numb and how to get back. Where do you find wonder? is a good question, but it carries an unstated assumption. The real question is, Where do you find wonder after you have lost it? That’s what I wanted to learn on this trip – why you lose it, and how you get it back.” – Nate Staniforth, Here is Real Magic, p. 114-115People who lack curiositynever find the end of the rainbowor hear the chimes at midnight with a friend.Ann Pratchett famously said,“Never be so focused on what you’re looking for that you overlook the thing you actually find.”Glenn Gould was on a similar trajectory when he said,“The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but rather the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder…”Tom Robbins said it in a way that includes me.“A lot of my work comes from what in Asia is called the ‘mind of wonder.’ There is not a lot of ‘mind of wonder’ writing in contemporary Western literature. I think that’s what appeals to the readers who are my fans.”Albert Einstein said it first.“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead —his eyes are closed.”But G.K. Chesterton said it succinctly.“We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders.”Wizard Academy teaches the communication arts. These include speaking and writing, of course, but symbols, colors, shapes, music and numbers are language as well. And each one plays a role in successful advertising and marketing.I share these things with you becauseI am thinking about the future.And what I want it to hold.Curiosity is the gift I would give you.And wonder is what I want you to find.We’re here when you want to visit.Roy H. WilliamsChancellor, Wizard Academy

Didn’t Coca-Cola used to have the most wonderful TV ads?But when’s the last time you saw one on TV?Have you heard of Vitaminwater? Coke bought it for $4.1bn. Traditional soft drinks are now less than 2/3 of Coke’s business, and that percentage is likely to decline.The problem, I think, is that we fell out of love with sweet, syrupy soft drinks. Coke saw this handwriting on the wall, so they evolved into ready-to-drink teas and coffees and juices and dairy products.Coca-Cola knew it was time to reinvent themselves; to transform from one thing into another. This is why – after a continuing series of mistakes, failures, and course corrections – they will continue to thrive.Reinvention is easier as an evolution, rather than an all-at-once revolution.But this takes foresight.Do you remember when travel agencies were a thing? If you needed to buy a plane ticket, you called a travel agent. But most travel agencies disappeared altogether because they remained in denial too long.Changes in the marketplace are, doubtless, affecting your business. Do you have plans to evolve into what you need to be, or are you hunkered down in denial?I happen to know a number of bright and successful church pastors across North America. Interestingly, they all say the same thing. “Gone are the days when most people attended church services every Sunday. Most people attend once a month these days, and the core congregation comes to church twice or three times a month.” But these pastors aren’t complaining and they’re certainly not lecturing their congregations about it. They’re successful because they’ve adapted to what is.Have you adapted to what is? Or are you trying to turn back the clock, to the way it ought to be, or used to be, or the way you’d like it to be?The customer has a way they would like it to be, too. Will you listen to them? Or will you insist they listen to you?Is this something you’d care to discuss?Our conversation will continue in the rabbit hole, with Judge Indy Beagle presiding.Roy H. Williams

We settle for sex when we cannot find love.Likewise, we settle for the excitement of energy – adrenaline – when we cannot find oxytocin – that quiet but satisfying excitement of knowing we belong.Adrenaline and oxytocin are the neurotransmitters that make us feel our most important feelings.POW! The release of adrenaline is easy to trigger. But it takes subtlety to gently release oxytocin.SPOILER ALERT: Yes, we’re talking about advertising and marketing. We’re talking about selling. We’re talking about building long-term relationships with our friends, our clients, and our customers.The ancient Greeks had 6 words for love.Three of them – eros, philia, and agape, were used in the original Greek text of the New Testament:Eros is erotic love. Adrenaline excitement.Philia is friendship. That oxytocin-based feeling of connectedness.Agape is sacrificial love. An oxytocin bond so deep that you will take a bullet for your partner.The following 3 words for love are not found in the Bible, but they may prove to be of use to us nonetheless:Ludus is playful love. Banter and repartee. Teasing. Dancing. Ludus is that interesting blend of adrenaline and oxytocin we see in two puppies rolling and tumbling as they play-fight. Ludus is ludicrous. Ridiculous. Restorative.Philautia is self-love. It is confidence, self-connectedness, being comfortable in your own skin. Those of you that have been to Wizard Academy have heard me say, “Much of what we buy is purchased to remind ourselves – and announce to the world around us – who we are.” This identity reinforcement – “self belonging” – is oxytocin-based, not adrenalin-based. Philautia is a good thing, but too much of this good thing will make you a narcissist.Pragma is longstanding love. It is the deep understanding that develops between long-married couples. You might think of it as oxytocin that has been aged like fine wine. Brand loyalists have pragma for the brands they promote.Did you notice that only 2 of the 6 kinds of love – eros and ludus – involve adrenaline?Eros in advertising is using a girl in a bikini to sell auto parts. Eros in advertising is a billboard showing pretty girls in tight tops serving food in a place called “Hooters.”I like to believe I’m above doing those sorts of things in ads.(I’m probably not, but I like to believe I am.)I like to believe you’re above doing those sorts of things, too.But I’m definitely not above using ludus, playful love, banter and repartee in advertising. In fact, I’m wildly in favor of it, as are most of the people on earth, if popular movies and TV shows are any indication.Have you noticed that logic is not a driver in any of the 6 kinds of love?Wow. That’s scary.There is something in each of us that desperately needs to believe we are creatures of logic, and that our most important decisions are based on reason, after careful consideration of the facts.Unfortunately, this has been medically proven not to be the case. In fact, 100% of all decisions require an emotional component.Without emotion, there can be no decision.1Without surprise, there can be no delight.Without you, there can be no Wizard Academy.Come and see us when you can.Roy H. Williams

Wizard Academy began with an itch and an image.I got the itch in Tulsa in 1978 when I was 20 years old.I saw the image online in 1994 when I was 36.The itch was to help little businesses succeed.The image was of a boy sitting beneath the stars with an open book in his lap. The crenels and merlons in the battlements beyond him suggested that he was sitting on the top of a castle tower.Looking at that cartoon image on my computer screen, I knew I was going to build that tower.I know this makes me sound crazy, but there have been a handful of moments in my life when I quietly but suddenly knew what was going to happen. I’m not talking about premonitions or visions or dreams or hopes or wishes. I’m not talking about goals or goal-setting. I’m talking about knowing something as surely as if it had already happened.Did I mention that I know this makes me sound crazy?I was 13 when I saw a photograph of Pennie Compton and knew that I was going to marry her. The two of us had never met. A few months earlier, I had been flipping through a 1963 Reader’s Digest atlas of the world when I noticed a city – Austin – in the center of Texas. I remember raising an eyebrow when I suddenly knew I would move there someday. The sequence of events that would cause these things to happen remained an absolute mystery to me. But the outcome was never in question.So I knew I was going to build that tower. But I had no idea why.My 1978 itch to help small businesses grow led to a string of remarkable successes. By 1992 I was traveling 40 weeks a year teaching ever-larger groups of business owners how to lift themselves to higher levels of success.I hated it.Dorothy was right, “There’s no place like home.” I’ve suffered from separation anxiety throughout my life. Travel, for me, is “the little death.”“Honey,” said Pennie in 1993, “let the people who want your help come to Austin. Schedule a monthly class in our conference room and if someone wants to come to it, they can come.”When we outgrew that conference room we began to rent the ballrooms of luxury hotels. By the time we paid for those rooms and rented the projection equipment and bought the coffee at $60 a pot and fed lunch to all our guests, we were spending about $20,000 per event to host these classes.Did I mention that we weren’t charging anyone to attend the classes, and that we had no capacity to serve additional clients?So we built a new headquarters building for our marketing business with a large, open room on the second floor that we could use as a classroom. That worked for about 2 years.Then we built a classroom building next to the main office building. That bought us an extra 4 years.Then, in 2004, Pennie said, “Honey, I found some land we should buy.”“Why do we want to buy some land?”“We’ll build some stuff for ourselves on one half of it, and then donate the other half to Wizard Academy and let the school become whatever it wants to become.”When she showed me the land, I smiled. There, on the top of that majestic plateau was the tower I had seen 10 years earlier. It wasn’t physically there, of course, but I knew that someday it would be.If you have a crazy image in your mind of a possible future, an inexplicable guiding star that encourages you in the dark moments and lights your way one step at a time, never forget that you have a tribe, and they’ve built a fascinating place for you to come when you need guidance or instruction or fellowship or encouragement.Do you have an idea? An itch? A hunger?Do you see something that no one else can see?Are you willing to leave a trail of sweat and tears and dollars behind you as you struggle to make it real?Welcome to Wizard Academy.You, my friend, are exactly our brand of crazy.Let the adventure begin.Roy H. Williams